Currently, sounds generated by each application running on a computing device (e.g., personal computer) are played over each other. No sound is more important than another when played. Therefore, sound from one application may make it more difficult for a user to hear sound from an application of particular interest to the user. For instance, an alarm may not be over a music application playing a song.
Furthermore, each application may generate sound in one of a number of different formats. The hardware configuration, however, may be optimized to play sound in a particular format. Currently, there is no ready means for converting the format of sounds generated by particular application into a format that matches the hardware configuration, while not applying the conversion algorithm to sounds already generated in the matching format.